Clearing away the rubble

Many of us might have thought that freedom came to Eastern Europe with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

But every collapse leaves ruins. And our friends in Eastern Europe are laboring mightily to this day to remove the rubble of Soviet domination.

It was only five months ago that the peaceful "Orange Revolution" installed a freely elected government in Ukraine - and 18 months ago that the similarly civil "Rose Revolution" threw off Georgia's Soviet-holdover government.

This week, Georgia feted freedom fighter George W. Bush with song and dance and roses. And Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili wrote in a Washington Post column that the fight for freedom must continue to spread - to all of Georgia, to Moldova, Belarus and beyond Eastern Europe to Cuba, Burma and Zimbabwe.

Noting that the World War II-era Yalta conference "relegated millions of people to a ruthless tyranny," Saakashvili called for a new Yalta to cement the democratic movement in Eastern Europe.

We think it's a tremendous idea. And we think this Georgia should stand side-by-side with President Saakashvili's Georgia.